MCQ: BREATHE

Surely no one online would dare taking full credit for some Instagram campaign a considerable team of creatives worked on. There’s an unwritten law: those who contributed get tagged and it becomes quite obvious that there are people — not a single, visionary individual as fashion likes to portray — but people involved in the putting together of collections and editorial content. Yet so far the fashion industry has resisted to spread the credit (and perhaps more crucially, the paycheck) among the whole team that’s behind a designer or a creative director’s success. And it is precisely what MCQ intends to tackle: to let those who contributes to a project shine equally bright /

Indeed, although the label falls under the Alexander McQueen umbrella, MCQ distances itself from the idea that creative talent’s an innate thing only a select few are blessed with and instead suggests that creativity prospers with conversations on equal footing and collaborative work. They do so by reaching out to those whose work inspires them and ask if they’d like to join their newly reconstituted creative team that changes with each new collection, or new “icon”, to borrow a word from MCQ’s lexicon.

The just released Breathe icon brings together a team of emerging and more established fashion professionals and artists, namely, industrial designer and recent CSM graduate Tom Ducarouge, photographer Nikki McClarron, stylist Anna Pesonen, textile designer Borre Akkersdijk, as well as film and music video maker Duncan Loudon, and musical artist Tsunaina who’ll get to perform (when Covid allows it) at the launch party in a custom made photosynthesising garment again made in collaboration between her, MCQ and biotech start-up Post Carbon Lab. As evidence of everyone’s contributions, each collaborator’s name appears on a tag placed outside each item.

MCQ’s latest icon projects an air of serenity with lightweight and translucent fabrics in hues of sky blue, off-white, grey-washed purple, sea-green, and earthy colours like orange and also black, while featuring functional elements such as adjustable drawcord, many pockets, and an overall sense of nuance and modulation to the forms and shapes — as one would expect, the whole thing seems to breathe.

In line with the icon’s theme of breathing and letting go, the label has incorporated into most garments Tom Ducarouge’s guiding “Breath Artefact” designs, which he created about two years ago for his graduate collection. “The idea came to me when I realised how radio waves from mobile phones can affect our sleep, and so I started doing breathing exercises as a way to ditch the bad habit of falling asleep looking at a screen,” said Tom. “With their oval form that reminds of wavelength, they echo an optimal breathing cycle,” he went on, explaining how his artefacts have been embossed on the garments to guide us in breathing more consciously.

While maybe not as literal as Tom’s artefacts, the other collaborators also foster this same sense of calmness that’s too often neglected and even forgotten. “It’s funny how breathing has become such an unfamiliar territory in the sense that we need help to remember how to do it mindfully,” said Anna Pesonen. She goes on to say she’s practiced mindfulness through yoga since her teenage years and that, even though she’s familiar with breath meditation practices, she’s traveled a lot for work and at times felt like she was racing against the clock and, yes, got stressed out.

“But less so now,” she said. “Of course it can happen, usually though it’s more like a perceived lack of time and it’s remarkable that we have the key to correct that by taking a few deep breaths — then things become fine and balanced again.” To translate this notion into styling Anna’s made monochromatic looks and guided the models through their embodiment of serenity.

From the get-go she felt that she and the other contributors were given the most autonomy, the freedom to express their views which ultimately helped set an open atmosphere in which they could come together and do what they do best: be creative. Not that the other clients she works with don’t nurture an inspiring working environment, only that, she admitted, “it was a much more democratic process that gave everyone the time to think and chat things through.”

This democratic approach to creative projects isn’t unfamiliar ground to one of the collaborators, Borre Akkersdijk, who, through his tech-driven textile mill BYBORRE, helped MCQ design a fabric inspired by what they had in mind: topographic maps. “For us it’s all about sharing the knowledge and the technology that allows us to make better textiles. We’re committed to transparency,” says Borre. And so, by maintaining the integrity of MCQ’s design idea, the textured pattern on the knit they’ve made indeed looks like a landscape seen from above, with the mountains and clouds etc. 

When asked about whether the fashion industry at large should further foster collectivity, Borre answered: “I wonder if what MCQ does, if what we did is going to inspire other brands to reevaluate what they’re doing and why… Because every brand tries to reinvent the wheel and that most often leads to overproduction and such misjudgements.”

“Together, though, we can do a better, more thoughtful job,” he said.

He then added that by stating clearly those who worked on the project, MCQ offers greater transparency about where the fabrics come from, by whom were the garments designed by and shot etc etc., and, ultimately, the label helps their customers better understand what it’s taken to make the clothes they consider buying. And perhaps that’s what’s refreshing about MCQ’s whole approach: we get to know what goes on behind the scenes.

breathe by Tsunaina, Anna Pesonen, Nikki McClarron, Tom Ducarouge, Duncan Loudon, BYBORRE, Post Carbon Lab & the MCQ Team

Campaign director: Machine Operated Production: CEBE DOP: Jack Reynolds Set designer: Ibby Njoya Stylist: Anna Pesonen Styling assistant: Noa Zarfati Photographer: Nikki McClarron MUA: Stevie Squire Hair Stylist: Blake Henderson Models: Felix Cheong Macleod & Sano Turdiev Editing: Sam Allen

Words / Michaël Smith

Find out more at my.mcq.com